Dimensions of the Word

262 Pages·2014·1.62 MB·English

by  Andrzej Łyda, Grzegorz Drożdż (eds.)

Dimensions of the Word

Dimensions of the Word

Edited by

Andrzej (cid:224)yda and Grzegorz Dro(cid:298)d(cid:298)
Dimensions of the Word,

Edited by Andrzej (cid:224)yda and Grzegorz Dro(cid:298)d(cid:298)

This book first published 2014

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2014 by Andrzej (cid:224)yda, Grzegorz Dro(cid:298)d(cid:298) and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-5683-5, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-5683-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................. 1
Part One: Lexical Semantics
Chapter One ............................................................................................... 12
Representation of Polysemy as a Basis of Contrastive Lexical Semantics
Bogus(cid:225)aw Bierwiaczonek
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 28
How Light are “Light” Verbs in Composite Predicates?
Bo(cid:298)ena Cetnarowska
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 47
“What’s in Painfulness?”: A Comparative Study of PAIN in English,
Polish and Spanish
Adam Palka
Part Two: Semantics of Grammar
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 84
Admit and its Complements: A Corpus-Based Study
Agnieszka Kaleta
Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 106
Experiential Foundations of Countability and Uncountability in English
Grzegorz Dro(cid:298)d(cid:298)
Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 134
How Much Meaning do Constructions Really Convey?
Revisiting the Lexicon-Grammar Distinction
Konrad Szcze(cid:286)niak
vi Table of Contents
Part Three: Word in Discourse

Chapter Seven .......................................................................................... 158
Relative Salience of Formal Aspects of Advertising Discourse:
A Comparative Account
Adam Wojtaszek

Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 179
Linguistic Persuasion: A Case Study of Two Short Stories
by S(cid:225)awomir Mro(cid:298)ek
Paulina Bia(cid:225)y

Part Four: Moulding the Word

Chapter Nine ............................................................................................ 192
Second Language Lexical Transfer during Third Language Acquisition
Dorota Lipi(cid:276)ska

Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 214
James Joyce’s Onomatopoeias: Lexical Creativity and Convention
Dagmara (cid:285)wi(cid:261)tek

Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 232
LSP, Naturally! The Need for a New Approach to Terminology
Demonstrated by the Term Natural Horsemanship
Eleonora Paw(cid:225)owicz

Notes ........................................................................................................ 251
INTRODUCTION

Dimensions of the Word
An introduction to a volume devoted to the word needs to begin with a
question that is both general and reminiscent – what’s in a word? This
question is so general that an attempt to answer it might easily evolve into
a long series of publications. Consequently, to be really meaningful, a
good answer to it should be brief, like each of the following chapters. At
the same time, such a question immediately encourages several reflections,
e.g. it reminds us that thinking about the word has a long history. As a
result, it is hardly possible to be original, for much has already been said
and written about it. However, despite such a long perspective, it is
perfectly possible to return to this question – despite hundreds or even
thousands of answers provided, people still would like to know what is in
a word. Naturally, the present volume cannot give an exhaustive answer to
this question – each of the eleven chapters deals with a different part of the
answer and one or more of the dimensions of the word indicated below.
Still, the contributions included here definitely broaden the perspective
traditionally adopted on the word and constitute a good overview of the
issues and approaches taken to the word at the beginning of the third
millennium.

It is not easy to define the scope of the word, for it is so great that it is not
even possible to discuss all of its facets within one volume. That is why
the present publication had to be selective in the range of topics covered
and research questions asked. First of all, the duality of the word needs to
be recognized (Hockett 1960, Martinet 1980): it is a unit consisting of
sounds and/or letters. And it is already at this stage that the first question
discussed in the volume appears – do these elements carry a meaning? On
the one hand, the Platonic, naturalistic tradition would assume that this
should be the case. On the other hand, the conventionalist stand, supported
by de Saussure and the majority of modern linguistic trends, would claim
the contrary. However, a more recent look at the issue of arbitrariness
(Radden, Panther 2004:1-2) calls into question de Saussure's radical stance.
What is more, some of his remarks on motivation “make de Saussure
2 Introduction
appear as a precursor of cognitive linguistics” (ibid.). To see the father of
contemporary linguistics in a less arbitrary-dominated light, it is good to
keep in mind one of his remarks: “there is no language in which nothing is
motivated, and our definition makes it impossible to conceive of a
language in which everything is motivated. Between the two extremes – a
minimum of organization and a minimum of arbitrariness – we find all
possible varieties” (de Saussure 1916/1959:133).

The next dimension of the word taken up in this volume is its status as a
unit carrying a meaning. This approach emphasizes a different facet of the
unit: the extent of its meaning, which can be discussed from at least two
different positions. First, focusing on the word and its expansion, it is
possible to elaborate the connections between more and more distant
senses of words, trace their unconstrained and gradual stages of extension
and try to classify them from different perspectives. On the other hand, a
reverse tendency can also be observed: terminological efforts are made to
delineate the meaning of a word as precisely and exhaustively as possible
and – in a word – to contain this untamed beast called meaning. This latter
approach is based on more general assumptions concerning language that
have recently been called the conduit metaphor (Reddy 1979) and the
building block metaphor (Cuyckens, Dirven, Taylor 2003). Ultimately, as
shown in the volume, some sociocognitive insights make it possible to
discuss the issue of word definitions in a less idealized manner.

In discussion of the meaning of a word, another issue comes into play:
how far does the meaning of a single word extend or, more precisely, to
what extent can the meaning of one word influence another? Again, this
question can be analysed from several standpoints. First of all, the
meaning of a word (e.g. of a verb) can become so impoverished and
“light” that the item may require another word to support it, which, in
consequence, may lead to the formation of composite or complex
predicates (Cattell 1984, Traugott 1999, Butt 2003, etc.). At the same time,
it can also be argued that word meanings “stretch” because at a certain
level of schematicity some elements of their meaning begin to form a
relatively stable unit with the meanings of other words (possibly due to
certain specific semantic properties). The latter approach puts complex
predicates in a different light – not as an exception but rather as a specific
case of a more general linguistic tendency: to form formulaic/conventional
expressions (Langacker 1987), constructions (including verbs with their
complements) (Goldberg 1995, 2006, 2010, Jackendoff 1990, 2010, etc.),
or situation-bound utterances (Kecskes 2003).
Dimensions of the Word 3
A dimension that cannot be neglected at this juncture is the relation
between the grammatical behavior of the word and its meaning. Although
this issue extends over an area that once was virtually neglected in
linguistic research, the lexico-grammar continuum (Langacker 1987,
Cuyckens et al. 2003, Langacker 2008, Panther, Thornburg 2009, etc.), it
offers promising grounds for analysis. Reference to morphology and
syntax, as well as semantics, allows scholars to extend the scope of
research and consequently to arrive at observations and conclusions that
were hitherto unavailable. Naturally, postulating such a continuum is not
free from problems, which one of the present contributions also addresses.

Another significant issue raised in the volume is the cross-linguistic
comparison of meaning. Within it, two perspectives are especially
prominent: theoretical and analytical. The former focuses on developing a
theoretical model that can serve as a general method of comparing lexical
items from different languages, which is a much needed contribution to
contrastive lexical semantics. The latter involves a detailed comparison of
the scope of meaning of lexical items from several languages. The analysis
encompasses semasiological, onomasiological, and metaphorical dimensions
of selected lexemes and their derivatives. The cross-linguistic dimension
taken up in the volume is enriched with views on one of the facets of
multilingualism, namely, the influence that can be observed between the
second and third language during third-language learning.

Finally, it needs to be observed that words do not just appear in sentences
but also also perform actions that exceed their semantic potential (Austin
1975, Grice 1975, Searle 1981, etc.). They may be used as constructions
evoking certain contexts (Kecskes 2003, 2008), whose appropriateness can
be objectively measured. At the same time, they can also be applied as
tools serving more general purposes, e.g. persuading someone to do
something, which constitutes the last of the six dimensions of the word
approached in the volume.
The articles in this volume
The following chapters are divided among four parts according to the
topics that they explore. The first part focuses on the dimension taken up
by lexical semantics: different facets of polysemy. First, Bogus(cid:225)aw
Bierwiaczonek devises a model of cross-linguistic comparison of lexical
items. His proposal elaborates Langacker’s network model and radial
models by furnishing them with a set of semantic processes of meaning
4 Introduction
extension and adding the contrastive dimension. By doing so, he is able to
build a precise and logically motivated hierarchy of senses of a lexical
item in one language and, on this basis, indicate the level of schematicity
and relations between these senses’ equivalents from another language.
The research part covers two polysemic lexemes in Polish and English:
p(cid:225)yta and face. The author provides an account of the semantic structure of
the lexemes and illustrates the analysis with diagrams.

The author of the second chapter, Bo(cid:298)ena Cetnarowska, analyses English
multi-word units, the structure of which consists of common verbs plus
countable nouns, the latter being formally identical to verbs. After
outlining the major directions of research in the field and many
uncertainties related to them, the author makes a distinction between light
verbs and vague action verbs, which constitutes the first step in the
subsequent discussion. Then she provides a scrupulous analysis of
numerous corpus examples of the use of three “light” verbs: have, take,
and give. The analysis leads to the conclusion that, contrary to some of the
claims put forward within the field, the verbs are not semantically empty
but their meaning can be partly derived from their general meaning.

Adam Palka, in turn, undertakes an in-depth contrastive analysis of pain
words in three languages: English, Polish, and Spanish. The author
addresses the problem of defining and comparing the pain-related lexemes
(pain, ból, dolor, sufrimiento, and their derivatives) across the borders of
the languages as well as across the cognitive and phenomenological
grounds of their use and understanding. Palka selects the cognitive
approach including anthropocentric and culture-oriented criteria as well as
the Linguistic worldview (LWV) theory as a tool of analysis. The analysis
is based on a comparison of the original, English version of C.S. Lewis’s
The Problem of Pain with its translations into Polish and Spanish. This
choice gives the study more value in terms of its contribution to translation
and comparative studies.

The second part of the volume deals with the area indicated within the
Cognitive Linguistics movement: the continuum between grammar and
semantics or, more specifically, syntax, morphology, and semantics and
lexicon. In her chapter, Agnieszka Kaleta analyses the verb admit in
terms of the distributional properties of its different uses, i.e.
ADMIT_ING; ADMIT_TO_ING and ADMIT__THAT structures. The
author’s objective is to indicate that contrary to the popular view, these
three constructions are not interchangeable but in fact represent different